Joe Biden's Son-in-Law Business Practices are Raising Ethics Concerns Over COVID-Related Investments

The Biden Family is in the hot seat once again for their potentially corrupt abuse of political power in an attempt to line their own pockets with cash.

Hunter Biden, Jim Biden and Frank Biden are all under investigation or facing ethical concerns for their potentially illegal behavior.

Now, Joe Biden's son-in-law Howard Krein, who is married to Ashley Biden, is facing ethical questions. Krein is the chief medical officer for StartUp Health, a healthcare venture capital firm.

Not too long ago, StartUp Health invested in a company called Yosi Health, a tech firm that creates technology that would help the United States' coronavirus vaccine response. In December, the company urged StartUp Health to push their program in front of government officials.

ABC News reported:

During the 2020 presidential campaign, attention on the Biden family focused largely on his son, Hunter Biden. But experts say it is the president's son-in-law who could present fresh ethical challenges for the new administration.

"Howard Krein is playing with fire," said Meredith McGehee, the executive director of Issue One, a nonpartisan ethics watchdog group. "If he gets too close to that flame - if he is trying to either cash in on his relationship with the president, or he is trying to influence policy - the flame is going to get him. And it is not worth it to him or to Biden."

A renowned Philadelphia-based head and neck surgeon who married Biden's daughter Ashley in 2012, Krein helps oversee StartUp Health investments in hundreds of companies, including some hoping to break through with the federal agencies battling the global coronavirus pandemic.

Since 2011, when Krein founded the firm with his brother Steven Krein and veteran tech entrepreneur Unity Stoakes, Joe Biden has been an active supporter of the venture - headlining corporate conferences and inviting the company's executives to the Oval Office to meet then-President Barack Obama.

When the COVID-19 crisis emerged during Biden's bid for the White House, Krein stepped up in the spring to advise his father-in-law's campaign in an unofficial role on potential pandemic response plans - an arrangement that garnered scrutiny at the time, given StartUp Health's push to invest in firms that were looking to tailor products to help the pandemic response.

Now, with Biden in office, Krein's involvement with StartUp Health has prompted more tough questions, ethicists and tech industry experts told ABC News. Among them: Should Krein advise companies backed by StartUp Health in their efforts to win lucrative government contracts? Should he weigh in with his father-in-law on policy decisions that may benefit those companies? And will he obtain sensitive government information that may help inform investment decisions?

General counsel at the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight Scott Amey is sounding the alarm over Krein's potentially corrupt activities.

"Dr. Krein presents an ethical dilemma because he's being placed in a position where people want him to deliver access and information that will provide them with a competitive advantage," said Amey.

"At the same time, Biden has to ensure that family and friends' private matters don't merge with official government actions," Amey said. "This situation will take a good amount of transparency and oversight to ensure that lines are not crossed and that ethics standards are upheld."

ABC news and Trending Politics contributed to this report.